Germany expels US embassy official over spying row

posted at 10:01 am on July 10, 2014 by Ed Morrissey

The rift between Germany and the US grew deeper today as Angela Merkel’s government declared an American embassy official persona non grata and ordered his expulsion from the country. The official, an intelligence attaché who may or may not be the CIA’s station chief, provides the Germans a public target for their retribution after a second US spy was uncovered in the past few days:

#BREAKING: Merkel spokesman says U.S. intelligence official at U.S. embassy in Berlin has been asked to leave the country

A 31-year-old German intelligence official was arrested last week on suspicion of spying.

Reports on Wednesday said an inquiry had also begun into a German soldier.

“The German government has demanded that the American intelligence representative here in Germany leave the country,” said Clemens Binninger, an MP with the ruling Christian Democrat party.

One German legislator described the official to Europe Online Magazine as the CIA’s station chief in Berlin, although that will be a little difficult to confirm for obvious reasons [Update below]:

The chief US Central Intelligence Agency officer in Germany is to be expelled in a sign of Berlin‘s anger at two cases of possible US espionage uncovered in the past week, a senior German legislator said Thursday.

Relations between the United States and Germany sank to new depths on Wednesday as accusations emerged that a second German might have been slipping secrets to Washington.

The charge rubbed salt into wounds first opened by revelations that the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) had eavesdropped on German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cellphone — a practice President Obama has renounced. …

Merkel has said reports that a German agent was handing information to the CIA, if true, would be a “clear contradiction” of trust between the two nations.

Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier added that the U.S.’s involvement in spying would make it “impossible for the political community to simply return to business as usual.”

U.S. Ambassador John Emerson has reportedly met with German officials multiple times in recent days to discuss the charges, and could be back for additional tongue-lashings if more revelations emerge.

News Wednesday that Germany is investigating new allegations that the United States bought secrets from a German official _ the second such probe to become public in a week _ delivered another blow to U.S.-German relations over what is now a year-old scandal of American spying on an ally.

“The American secret services are completely out of control,” said Hans-Christian Stroebele, the most senior member of Germany’s parliamentary committee investigating the National Security Agency’s activities in Germany. “They seem to think they are allowed to do everything, even in Germany.”

The most recent allegations revolve around NSA efforts to determine what Stroebele’s committee has learned. Last week, German authorities reportedly arrested a member of Germany’s foreign intelligence service for allegedly passing documents to the United States about Stroebele’s committee. Wednesday, the focus of the new investigation was a German military official.

Stroebele said the new spying efforts _ a year after it was revealed that the United States had tapped German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cellphone and that the NSA was sweeping up millions of emails _ would prove costly to what had been a strong relationship between the nations.

One has to assume that the Germans are not so blinded by outrage here as the public stances might suggest, as they know well how the intelligence game is played. The French have been stealing industrial secrets for years, even though the two nations work much more closely together on the EU project than the US and Germany do in other areas. When these details about business-as-usual get made embarrassingly public, it forces everyone to make a public show of the outrage.

Removing a key link in the partnership through the mechanism of a diplomatic expulsion, though, goes a bit farther than contrived outrage. That’s a step one would expect to see between two antagonists, or two loosely-affiliated nations, not between close partners like the US and Germany. This may at least temporarily disrupt some of the intelligence sharing that has become key to Western security. Germany apparently feels that the risk of disruption is worth taking, which is a measure of their non-contrived anger over the revelations. Plus, Germany is probably going to conduct a mole-hunt or two, which will distract their intelligence services and potentially impact their effectiveness, and that’s bad news all over.

Normally, we’d see a tit-for-tat expulsion after this kind of move, but the Obama administration will likely let this slide. The US and Germany have too many common security interests to allow for a really serious breach to develop, and there should be some leeway given to Merkel under the circumstances. So far, the White House is keeping their collective lips sealed:

WH/@NSCPress not commenting on Germany ordering US intelligence official to leave the country. Calls it "purported intelligence matter."

They’d be wise to let this blow over and replace the expelled attaché quickly.

Update: The Washington Post also says it’s the CIA station chief in Berlin:

Germany took the dramatic step Thursday of asking the top U.S. intelligence official in Berlin to leave the country, following two reported cases of suspected U.S. spying and the yearlong spat over eavesdropping by the National Security Agency.

The move reflects growing impatience in Germany at what is perceived as U.S. nonchalance about being caught spying on a close ally.

“The representative of the U.S. intelligence services at the United States embassy has been asked to leave Germany,” government spokesman Steffen Seibert said in a statement.

“The request occurred against the backdrop of the ongoing investigation by federal prosecutors as well as the questions that were posed months ago about the activities of U.S. intelligence agencies in Germany,” he said. “The government takes the matter very seriously.”

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Which has what to do exactly with espionage against a foreign government? What exactly would the U.S. think/do if an NSA operative and a member of U.S. military intelligence were passing to a foreign intelligence service classified information about an investigation being conducted by a Congressional committee?

I don’t know why it’s so difficult to believe a duck is a duck without trying to show how clever we are by trotting out the old “tsk, tsk, we all know how these things are, old boy.”

But, on to another point. The Administration’s response is that this is a “purported” intelligence matter? They can’t even say “no comment” without adding a dig?

Can we expect the President to assure us that there’s not a “smidgen” of fire behind this smoke, after he’s finished his burger and beer? That should put the Germans in their place and make us all feel just swell.

Germany
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White House declines comment on Germany’s request that US intelligence official leave Germany; says it is essential that US cooperation with Germany continues – @Reuters
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End of alert
Berlin, Berlin, DE
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US CIA official at embassy in Berlin has been asked to leave the country, German Chancellor Angela Merkel spokesman says – @BloombergTV, @Reuters

The Obama administration actually done more damage to our relations to our allies and made us the laughing stock of our enemies than any past president that I can recall. I would say it all started with his famous Cairo apology speech.

This expulsion is an outrageous act of defiance from a previously compliant ally. It should and will seriously harm relations. The Germans must have a reason for suddenly objecting to our longstanding huge intelligence activities in Berlin, maybe our most important and largest presence in continental Europe, and I’d like to hear what it might be. I’m betting a realignment with Russia, a renewal of traditional ties, is at the root of this.

LOL. Really? You don’t see the arrogance of the Obama admin and it’s constant overreach in practically everything it does, plus the total lack of respect that has been displayed to our traditional allies during the past six years, as being a potential factor in Germany’s response?

King, the moron, was just on, asking the gov’t for more clamping down on your freedom/liberty, with tools better than FB’s. Go to Hell all of you traitors in DC. Snowden s/b given a statue when he dies.

This is one of those areas where Obama’s track record is going to hurt him. Even if he has a legitimate reason for this, who’s going to believe him? He has been wrong on almost everything.
Cindy Munford on July 10, 2014 at 11:17 AM

I certainly don’t believe him. In fact I’m inclined to believe the information is being relayed to Russia just as I’m sure our spies in Israel are passing intel to Hamas.

Lest we forget – it was the democrats that originally allied us with and supported the Taliban in the 1990s and are doing it again now!

Removing a key link in the partnership through the mechanism of a diplomatic expulsion, though, goes a bit farther than contrived outrage. That’s a step one would expect to see between two antagonists, or two loosely-affiliated nations, not between close partners like the US and Germany.

I don’t think this is quite such a big deal. It’s not unusual for one nation to be caught spying on another. The usual response, if the nations are still largely friendly, is to expel the one caught spying.

That’s not to say it isn’t serious. Normally, very friendly nations would probably just protest privately, rather than make a public deal. But the real sign that Germany is not happy is that it’s announcing this publicly, not that an embassy official is being sent home.

What makes it a big deal is that the White House got caught doing it last year, denied it, then got caught in the lie and then Obama said he’d order the spying stopped.

Now here we are a year later and Germany says the spying hasn’t stopped, effectively calling Obama a liar and the White House has gone silent.

Germany is wrong or the US (the Obama administration) has proven itself untrustworthy with a close ally.

Spying happens – that’s not the issue. The issue is that Obama has created another diplomatic rift by promising to stop spying and then doing it anyway and at high levels of government . Dude didn’t even turn down the intensity of spying!

Again, if the Germans are correct, what was so important to US that we risked this kind of diplomatic damage as goodwill?

When I attended the USAF’s “Contingency Wartime Planning Course” (their motto is “Think War, Plan on it“) we joked that the U.S. Military had contingency plans for invading Great Britain and the Vatican, later on we learned that it wasn’t a joke.

We spy on the Germans they spy on us. It’s a game and we just lost a point. I’m sure we’ll get it back later on.